


A hunt at midnight

by SlyMisterFox



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe - World War I, Horror, POV Third Person Limited, Suspense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:02:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27275380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlyMisterFox/pseuds/SlyMisterFox
Summary: At the height of WW1, a squad of soldiers enters enemy territory, seeking out their missing brethren. But as they hunt for their comrades, someone else is hunting them.The fog is closing in, as something unnatural stirs within. Too late to run, the hunt's begun...
Comments: 5
Kudos: 10





	A hunt at midnight

**Author's Note:**

> The characters depicted in this story aren't actually speaking English. I can't speak their language, so English it is. I CAN speak Russian, but, well, these characters aren't Russian.
> 
> Well, one of them is. But she'll be here soon enough... 0_o

Hugo stared at the hare in his hand with a mixture of pity and disgust. It's eyes were dark and lifeless, a steady river of blood flowing from the fresh new hole in its head where the bullet had passed through. It was dripping onto his boots. _Plip. Plop. Plip._ In his other hand, he held a knife. It was shaking. No, _he_ was shaking. 

"Come on-" Hugo jumped as a hand clamped down onto his shoulder- "I shot it for you, now you have to do the rest, yeah?" He let out a silent sigh of relief. It was just Wolfgang- tall, skinny, and the only one among them who'd kept his sense of humor. 

"I don't know how," Hugo weakly stated. Despite the cold weather, he was beginning to sweat. The knife felt awkward in his hand, the rabbit's furry stick legs, even more so. 

"It's easy," Wolfgang said, giving him a friendly pat on the back. "Start with the legs. Cut just above the joints, here- look where I'm pointing, Hugh- and cut deep enough to cut past the hide. You'll know when you're deep enough." He grinned. "That's what the girls say, eh?" 

Hugo gave a half-hearted laugh, even though he didn't really understand the joke. "Yeah, I guess."

"Wolfgang!" Somebody shouted. "The Captain wants to speak to you!"

"Right, you've got this. If you need help, ask Fredrick or Hans, they've done it before." After a playful noogie on the head, he was off, sprinting in the direction of their captain.

"Idiot," a man near Hugo muttered. He was sitting crisscross on the ground, roasting what looked like a bird over a pitiful fire. "If anyone gives us away, it'll be him. I'll bet you somebody heard that shot he made this morning. Hope the captain gives him a good yelling over it."

"Captain won't yell at Wolf," somebody else said. "Won't even raise his voice. Wolf is the captain's golden boy, everyone knows that."

"There ain't nothin' in this forest that's gold," a third soldier muttered darkly as he sharpened his blade. "Nothin' but rain 'n misery here. This whole thing's a giant waste of time if you ask me. If those men ain't back yet, then hell, they ain't _comin'_ back."

A murmur of agreement passed through them. Hugo shivered. 

"You best take the skin off that one soon, lad," said Hans from across the fire. He was a handsome man, with combed blonde hair and pretty blue eyes, and a week's worth of stubble. "Captain doesn't want us to dig into the rest of our rations just yet- doesn't know how long we'll be here for."

"Yes, sir." Taking a seat beside the soldier roasting his bird, Hugo pressed his leg against the hare's leg. It was staring up at him, a circle of blood around it's small, sad eye. "Sorry about this," Hugo muttered under his breath. "But we really need to ea-" 

A sudden bellow filled the air, scaring Hugo out of his wits. His blade fell into the dirt as he hurriedly got to his feet. The soldiers around him were far quicker, their rifles already aimed in the direction of the horrid noise. 

"What in the hell was that?" Somebody hissed. "Was that one of ours?"

"No," Hans murmured, his eyebrows knitting together as he scanned the woods. "No, I don't think so. Did you hear it? Low, guttural... I think that was an animal. Elk, maybe."

"I swear, if that idiot's gone and shot another-"

Hans quickly cut him off. "It's not Wolf."

"Oh yeah? And how d'you know?"

"Because we've all seen his work firsthand. Wolf's a good shot. He doesn't give anything a chance to scream, and the captain's forbidden anyone from any more hunting. No, this is something else."

The men fell silent. For what seemed like the longest time, they stood there, guns at the ready, searching for an unknown foe. The only noise was their own breathing and the crackle of the fire. Hugo was crouched between them, heart hammering in his chest, his meal laying forgotten by his feet. The stock of his rifle was pressed against his shoulder, the barrel held up towards the seemingly endless fog that surrounded them.

Nobody made a sound. Somewhere in the distance, an owl hooted. 

"Coulda been a real wolf, maybe," somebody suggested after a while, breaking the eerie silence. 

"Maybe," said Hans, though he didn't sound convinced. "Fredrick, Adolf, you two stand watch."

"Why me?" Adolf asked, not bothering to hide the irritation in his voice. 

"Because you've already finished your meal. Also, your mustache looks stupid."

Everyone except Hugo and Adolf snickered, the tension slowly evaporating. Hugo's sense of dread didn't leave him so easily, however. As he sat back down, he felt an unnatural tingle race down his spine, as if something was watching. But when he turned to look, there was nothing there, just more trees and fog. It was just his imagination.

Maybe.

* * *

After everyone had finished their meals, including Hugo (Wolfgang ended up skinning his hare for him), they all gathered up their things and resumed the walk forward. Deeper and deeper into foreign land they marched. There were strange sounds everywhere, not quite as abrupt or as loud as the scream they'd heard an hour ago, but it was still unsettling to hear. It was almost as if the forest knew they were trespassing and was whispering its angry denial. It certainly felt that way to Hugo, and he soon realized, to everyone else as well. Three times, they had to stop because because somebody swore they saw something, or heard something out of the ordinary. A flicker of movement. The sound of someone laughing. A strange glow. 

Everyone was on edge.

When it happened a fourth time, the captain lost his patience. Keeping his voice low, he told them the forest was turning their own minds against them, causing them to see and hear things that weren't there. He sounded so confident, Hugo almost believed him. But he couldn't shake the tingle. _Something's watching you,_ it told him. But when he turned to look, there was nothing there.

Once, he thought he saw something, high above the trees, accompanied by a strange crackling in his ear. He couldn't see it very well through the ceiling of leaves, but from he could tell, it was black as night, its hide dotted with what looked like embers. But it passed by so quickly, he started to wonder if maybe he was starting to hallucinate. Was that possible? To be so afraid, you start to see things? He wasn't sure, but he certainly hoped so. 

After what seemed like forever, the captain called for a rest. The moon was high in the sky by that point, and the fog had mercifully receded. Lacking backup food, they ate some of their rations, but not too much. Tomorrow was another day. 

After finding a suitable spot (preferably near Wolfgang), Hugo laid out his makeshift bed and laid in it. Sleep didn't come willingly, so he hummed a little song, the same one his mother sang for him as he slept on her lap. He remembered the sweet memory of her smile, the click-click of her needles as she sowed a new pair of socks for him, the way she'd occasionally pause to caress his head.

As the fog began to finally lift, he felt his eyelids grow heavy. The worry of his day slipped away, replaced by the gentle lull of his mother's voice. Maybe he'd get out of this all right. Maybe they all would. After the war was over, he'd get to go home. Then, he could see his mother again. 

* * *

Hugo's eyelids fluttered apart as something heavy pressed down on his leg. The pressure lifted just as quickly, but it was took late, he was already awake.

"Sorry, Hugo," somebody whispered. "Didn't mean to step on you." A yawn forced Hugo's mouth apart before he could muster up a reply. By the time he recovered, the speaker was already gone. 

Something was happening. As his eyes slowly adjusted to the dark, he could see that several beds around him were abandoned. He could also hear Adolf snoring, but that was nothing new.

A sudden sound to his right made him jump. Somebody had just stepped on a twig. 

"Hello?" He whispered. He cautiously reached out, the darkness slowly devouring his pale hand. 

"Hugo?" It was Wolfgang. 

"What's going on?" 

"Not sure. I think Thomas found something."

"Thomas?"

"Yeah. Captain put him on second watch. Come on, let's go see." 

Hugo dragged himself out of bed, a mixed sense of dread and excitement washing over him. He stumbled after Wolfgang, trying to feel his way through the dark. After he smashed face-first into a tree, Wolfgang went back and gently grabbed him by the elbow, slowly dragging him along. Hugo began to see something in the distance, an orange glow. Somebody had started a fire. As they got closer, they began to hear voices. He recognized Hans, Fredrick's and a few others, as well as the Captain's. It was a whole circle, crowding around something Hugo couldn't see. 

"...Etty serious, all right," Hans was saying. "Whoever it was, they definitely knew what they were doing."

"What's going on?" Wolfgang said, pushing his way inside. The crowd parted, and for the first time, Hugo saw what all the ruckus was about. But... It didn't make any sense. 

In the center of the group was the captain himself, Captain Gregor. He was bald as an egg with a thick black mustache and a scar running above his left eyebrow, matching its length almost perfectly. But it was his eyes Hugo was staring at now; narrowed they were, and focused on the gift left for them atop a tree stump. There was a fire nearby, far more impressive than the ones they'd managed to make. Somebody had wanted to draw their attention. 

The captain reached out, his fingers closing around the doll left by their mysterious stalker. Its mouth was a stitched up line, it's eyes, two black X's. A needle had been pushed through a small red heart on it's chest. It had an egg-shaped head and a dull uniform that looked disturbingly familiar. 

_It's... OUR uniform,_ Hugo realized with a sudden chill. 

"I don't get it," Wolfgang muttered, a look of bewilderment on his face. 

"I do," the captain said, his gravelly voice as calm as ever.

"What?" Hugo whispered, not daring to raise his voice. "What is it?"

"Is it an animal?" Somebody said stupidly. 

"Animals can't make dolls, let alone a fire," Hans stated. 

The captain looked at each of them in turn, as if trying to convey to them all the gravity of the situation. But only when he said it aloud did Hugo realize just how bad things were. 

"We've been discovered," he bluntly stated. He pulled the pin out of the doll's heart, letting it fall to the ground. "The threat is quite clear, gentlemen. We're not alone out here." He glared into the forest, as if challenging their mysterious stalker to come out and face them. "Someone is hunting us."


End file.
